User blog:Julia-B184/Civil War - Part Eleven
December 23, 2578 X-COM Headquarters, Mandalore "As our best team, you'll be at the front of our new operations." Bradford paced in front of Red Team urgently. "These will be going back-to-back, with Teams Blue, Black and Gold performing right after you have. Or in some cases simultaneous." "The enemy might pick up on that." Vera pointed out. "If they see a Skyranger they'll know others will be spotted soon." "Major Arendal, I assure you that whatever flaw you see with the plan, we've considered it ten times over." Bradford seemed impatient and stressed. "We're either working around them or we have to take that risk. Do you have any more questions before you leave?" Red Team was silent, prompting Bradford to quickly salute them. "Then I'll be briefing Blue Team next. Good luck." Once the Central Officer had gotten off the deck, the team turned around and piled into the Skyranger. The pilot and co-pilot began to make various checks on the aircraft pre-takeoff, giving the operatives time to discuss the matter. "This sounds really dangerous." Merrik spoke up. "Rushing our operations is going to bite us in the ass." "At the moment, most of the ADVENT forces are gathered in No Man's Land." Eklund reminded him. "We'll get some free reign for a time. That should be able to ease the families." "Yeah, but even then we won't be able to do much against the war machine." Idun sighed in frustration. "When we took our time, we could handle these things more carefully." "I'm with you, but if we lose support of the families we won't be able to do anything." Vera pointed out. "So for now we have to show them that we're worth the funding." The doors began to close as the pilots finished their checks, and they could feel the Skyranger lifting off slowly, then abruptly rising. Once it had cleared the hangar bay, it began to speed up and grow closer to full speed. As Red Team grew quiet in anticipation of the mission, the Skyranger achieved full burn and began to rocket towards their new target. The flight went quietly as it usually did, each operative taking the time to rest and prepare for a quiet infiltration. In fact, most of them found themselves snapped out of daydreaming or other thoughts when the pilot finally alerted them that they were approaching the drop zone. Immediately preparing to jump, all four of them stood up and waited for the bay door to open. When it finally did and the familiar sensation of rushing air swooped in, they could see the sun setting past the horizon. "Thirty seconds." The co-pilot announced, to which each operative tensed up in anticipation, until - "Jump!" Red Team sprinted out of the Skyranger, leaping from the open bay door and falling into a straight dive towards the ground. To their relative left was the small airbase that they were planning to hit, prompting them all to move to the right so that they had less chance of being discovered. As the ground approached more and more quickly, each of them moved their position to feet-first and engaged their gravity wells. Seconds later, the four of them quietly landed on the snow-covered forest ground, taking quick cover so they could go over the plan. "Alright, we're going in-and-out on this one." Vera explained. "Idun clears the way while I follow up to make sure nobody spots us. Merrik, you carry the charges and give us cover. Eklund, you'll keep an eye out and warn us of any patrols." "Understood." Eklund drew his sniper rifle from its slinged position across his back. "I'm going to find a good position." The sniper and the rest of Red Team parted quickly, Eklund moving to find the best place from which he could snipe. As he moved, he made sure that the suppressor was in place and the scope on his rifle was adjusted the way it needed to be. Satisfied with his weapon's condition, he moved quietly to a narrow clearing between a cluster of rocks from which he could provide spotting and cover fire without being seen. Eklund began to set up his rifle on its bipod, keeping extra ammo on the ground next to it for easy access. Laying down and laying the stock against his shoulder, he leaned his cheek against the top and looked carefully through the scope, spotting and marking several soldiers for when the rest of the squad got close enough. However, the sound of footsteps in the snow brought him up from his laying position in a panic. Swiftly drawing his pistol and pointing in the direction of the sound, he was slightly reassured to find that nobody was there. Eklund was tempted to get back to his position, but he decided he had to check the area and make sure he could safely provide cover for the squad. Slowly standing up and keeping his sidearm ready, the sniper raised a hand to his ear so that he could inform the team he needed to search the area. He then felt an excruciating pain in the back of his head, collapsing on the ground and dropping his pistol in the snow. Before he could react, a second blow was delivered and he blacked out. Two hours later Primary ADVENT Facility "So which one have we captured?" Kylo Ren asked, following General Westerdal. "We captured the sniper of their most prominent team." Westerdal answered. "When they realized he wasn't responding, they moved back to where he was captured and saw he wasn't there. Called for their dropship." "Were we able to shoot it down?" Kylo asked. "No." The General sounded disappointed, but not overly so. "It's built more for speed than our interceptors and even our missiles. Broke the sound barrier before we even got a shot in." "A minimal loss." The Knight of Ren said apathetically. "The troops did their job well." "And we finally have a captured operative to show for it." Westerdal agreed, stopping outside the door to the interrogation room. "Are you sure that you can get him to talk?" "I've been learning great new things about the Dark Side of the Force." Kylo assured her. "I'm going to get the information that our interrogation drugs and torturers cannot." "Very well." Westerdal used to scoff at the idea of the force, but after joining ADVENT her view changed quickly. "Good luck, Viscount." Kylo Ren simply nodded to the general before opening the door to the holding cell and stepping inside. The ADVENT trooper guarding it quickly hurried outside and shut the door, leaving Kylo and the operative alone. The former sat down across from the latter, waiting for them to wake up from their latest bout of pain-induced unconsciousness. He didn't find himself waiting for very long, as the sniper's eyes snapped open in alarm. The mood was entirely silent even as he awoke, aside from some slightly rushed breathing. Kylo waited until he had recovered before leaning forward. "Comfortable?" Eklund was silent for a moment, before speaking up. "Come again?" With no reply, he continued, "Sorry, it's just, the mask. Makes you really hard to understand." "You have managed to resist our best interrogation methods." Kylo ignored Eklund's snark, but still complimented him. "But I'm going to give you one last chance." Standing up, he glared through his helmet at the sniper. "What is the full strength of your base defenses?" The sniper appeared to panic for a moment, but quickly steeled himself and his resolve. "The true defenders of Mandalore are not intimidated by the likes of you." "Very well." Kylo took a step closer and held out his arm, opening his hand and apparently focusing. Eklund only looked at the Knight of Ren with confusion, but tried to keep his brave expression on. It began to falter as he felt a strange sensation in his head, as if it became foggy. However, the "fog" began to be replaced by an intrusion - an excruciating one. He felt as if somebody was drilling into his brain. The pain in his head increased by the second, Kylo Ren seeming disturbingly casual through the entire process and only making slight adjustments mentally. Eklund started to panic as the intrusion began to tear through his very mind, as if somebody was ripping what he knew away from him and haphazardly throwing it back with no concern for his mentality. It only became worse as it advanced further through his mind. His shouts and screams to stop fell on deaf ears. X-COM Headquarters The bay door of the Skyranger opened and descended slowly, tapping against the ground roughly as it settled. Qrow Branwen walked out slowly, adjusting from being on an aircraft for hours and having walked for days on end before the flight. Bradford stood at the end of the hangar, starting to head over as soon as he saw Orb's agent leaving the dropship. He held out a hand, which the sober Qrow shook firmly. "Hate to ask just after you've arrived, but what did you find?" Bradford asked. Qrow gave a halphazard glance around the hangar before turning back to Bradford. "Their bigger secrets are locked up far, far away from where I can get. So I focused on a military target." Seeing the central officer's disappointment, he added quickly, "A target a hundred times more important than any of the parking lots you've been hitting." "What is it?" Bradford was interested again. "Research facility." Qrow answered. "Huge. Conducting their latest weapon projects. Robotic frames, interceptor engines that will make your Skyranger look like a snail, paralyzing gases that sweep across the battlefield and leave the victims unharmed but out of combat." "And the scientists behind it." Bradford realized, to which Qrow nodded. "You get in a few more operatives than you usually do, breach the facility and take the research. But to hurt ADVENT even more, take their scientists with you. Backup data is useless if it takes weeks to find somebody that actually knows what it means." Qrow explained his general plan. "And this can set ADVENT progress back months while we get the newest technologies straight from Orb." Bradford concluded. "We're going to need a few days, probably a week to plan this." Qrow nodded in agreement. "Though I, uh, heard on the way over that you lost a sniper." "MIA." Bradford clarified. "We're still working through that, asking Red Team about it. We don't know if he was captured, or dragged away and killed, whichever. But I think you should get some rest before you get into that." "Thanks for the offer, Brad, but I'm not going anywhere until I get my scythe back." Qrow stood firm, crossing his arms with a smirk. "And my flask. Better not be empty." Category:Blog posts